'Don't regard land as a fixed deposit' (http://business-standard.com/opinionanalysis/storypage.php?leftnm=4&subLeft=1&chklogin=N&autono=308410&tab=r)
Opinion/ Gopalkrishna Gandhi 23 Dec 07
Governmental policies are known to have been changed in the perspective of time. There was a period when it was considered necessary to convert deserts into green fields. The great canals in Rajasthan came about this way. I do not know how wise it was to make them, because so much of Rajasthan is, by its inherent nature, a desert. What is to be done for humanity's benefit on and with a desert, as a desert, should have been the more natural consideration. There could probably have been wiser ways of proceeding with those desert soils rather than trying to convert them into green acreages.
In the Andamans, large numbers of people needed to be brought in. This was not an agricultural project, it was a social project, a rehabilitation project. People from Bihar, for instance, were brought to the Andamans and forest land was sought to be converted into paddy land. But, as you know, the soil in the forests of Andamans is thin. Besides, there is no fresh water there. Yet rice was attempted to be grown in the Andamans. We know of the result. The settlers were not happy and we can say the soil was not happy.
So, we should not think that government policies and programmes are, always, Gospel. They are all subject to change in the perspective of time.
In our state, as all of you know better than I do, to the north we have the mountain slopes, the terai and the Dooars. These are 25 per cent of our state's total area and hold 18 per cent of our population. We experience landslides in the mountain slopes due to the action of gravity and seismic activities. Gravity cannot be changed, but there is something which can be done. We can modify human intervention where that intervention accelerates or aggravates the problem of landslides. This is not only possible but imperative.
Then, coming to the biggest part of our state — the tract, also known as the Rahr. This comprises 52 per cent of the area of the state and holds 49 per cent of the population. This has a large plateau with red lateritic soil which is not easy to cultivate. We have to realise that if nature has made laterites difficult to cultivate, nature has also given us a balance. The Rahr, which includes Birbhum, has large plains where red soil yields well to farming, where agriculture should not be regarded as a "low and indestructible form of life", but something which can be made into a very productive enterprise.
Finally, there is the Eastern Deltaic plain — 23 per cent of our total area, with 33 per cent of the population. This is where we have our most fertile tract. The underground water table here is a matter for attention. Indiscriminate use of fertiliser there can change the soil's composition. Our agriculture minister has said in his remarkable speech, that what is needed is a balance between chemical fertiliser-based agriculture process and bio-farming.
I do not want to take much of your time by saying to you any more about what you know much better than I. But I would end on this note with what the great teacher, Sri Thakur Ramakrishna Dev had said, which is pertinent for all times —Taka Mati, Mati Taka. He was perceptive, farsighted.
Let us not regard land as a fixed deposit which can be encashed as capital. I am all for capital, I am all for industry, but let industry and capital not look greedily upon soil as an encashable asset to be put into the profit graphs of private money. Soil, as our minister said, is the mother and we cannot afford to neglect it. It does not mean that we can have no activities on soil except agriculture. But the soil, fresh water and ozone, are the gifts of Creation.
(Excerpts from the speech of West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi at the National Symposium on Soil Science Research organised by the Kolkata Chapter of the Indian Society of Soil Science on December 7, 2007)
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